National Principal’s Conference 2017: EdConnective Is Revolutionizing Teacher Observation And Improving The Educator With Virtual Coaching

When I was in grade school in the 1980’s I remember the vice principal sitting in the back of the room with some freshly sharpened pencils and a yellow legal pad. This happened probably once a month. Things were different then. Administrators had more time on their hands for in classroom observation, feedback and 1:1 professional development (PD for those in the know). While it always seemed to make my teachers nervous, what I learned later on in life was that this was the part they craved.

Nowadays the average teacher receives 3 observations a year, if they’re lucky. School leaders and administrators want to do more observations but there simply isn’t enough time in the day. That leaves very little room for someone to teach and coach the teachers.

EdConnective has created a virtual program that allows for that much needed coaching in a more relaxed 1:1 environment. Their virtual observation and coaching tool is great from general teaching but where they really excel is through one to one mentoring and helping teachers overcome difficult areas.

“Nothing in Linda Liptrap’s teacher training prepared her for the pencil onslaught. In 2013, as a novice math teacher at Callaghan Elementary in rural Covington, Virginia, Liptrap was plagued by student requests to sharpen pencils, use the bathroom and other picayune interruptions.

“‘They were penciling me to death,’ Liptrap said. Lessons stalled. Test scores suffered. Callaghan’s principal tried a novel solution to rescue her harried teacher—a virtual coach. A startup called EdConnective matched Liptrap with a veteran teacher in another state trained as an instructional coach.”

EdConnective’s success formula is 11 observations with 12 feedback sessions over six weeks. This is all done in four easy steps.

Teachers teach and videotape their teaching

Teachers share their “game tape” with their EdConnective instructional coach

The coach reviews the tape and provides valuable feedback in a video session

Teaching practice and in turn, student outcomes grow

The EdConnective teachers have years of experience. All of EdConnective’s teacher coaches are well vetted and they spend some time watching teacher videos and coaching the EdConnective team before being let loose in the field of teacher clients.

If you want to improve your PD and don’t think there’s time, there is. Find out more at the National Principal’s Conference in Philadelphia July 9th-11th, booth #1109 and online at edconnective.com